Now in its 18th year, the 2021 Outreach Resources of the Year honors the past year’s best books that emphasize outreach-oriented ideas and ministries.
The evangelism and apologetics category was evaluated by Ed Stetzer, an Outreach contributing editor, who holds the Billy Graham distinguished chair of church, mission and evangelism at Wheaton College and the Wheaton College Graduate School, where he also directs the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.
RESOURCES OF THE YEAR
How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy): Personal Evangelism in a Skeptical World by Sam Chan
In How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy), Sam Chan offers wise and practical advice on sharing Christ in our ever-changing, post-Christian world. Using pertinent biblical texts, encouraging real-life examples, and sociological and cultural information, Chan offers readers a helpful way both to think about evangelism and how to practice it. He writes with confidence in the gospel and personal humility, and builds his content around eight tips. This resource of the year is applicable for church or individual, and can be implemented immediately.
SENT: Living a Life That Invites Others to Jesus by Heather and Ashley Holleman (Moody)
Offering numerous examples of how to make the shift to living as a sent person or family, this book is particularly helpful because of the married couple that wrote it. Wife Heather is the extrovert, whereas husband Ashley is the introvert. Readers of either personality type can gain immediate and useful wisdom from the Hollemans’ honest retelling of their strengths and weaknesses. As practical and helpful as SENT is, it’s really not fundamentally about how to practice evangelism, but understanding one’s identity as a sent person—which leads to evangelism.
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Reclaimed: How Jesus Restores Our Humanity in a Dehumanized World by Andy Steiger with Sheri Hiebert (Zondervan) offers a fascinating and helpful look at how dehumanizing people contributes to the outrage and division in our world, while seeing people as humans made in God’s image totally reshapes how we see others.
Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age by Joshua D. Chatraw (Zondervan) brings together apologetics and the biblical story in a way that helps give the believer confidence and assists in witnessing and defending the faith to others.
Additional evangelism resources are available at outreachmagazine.com/evangelism.
